MF Global Trustee James Giddens Says Up To $1.2 Billion Missing

The court-appointed trustee overseeing MF Global's bankruptcy says up to $1.2 billion is missing from customer accounts, double what the firm had reported to regulators last month.

The trustee, James Giddens, has been combing through the accounts and finances of MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31. He also says his plan to release about $520 million from accounts that have been frozen will mean nearly all the assets under his control will be distributed.

Regulators are investigating whether MF Global tapped money from clients' accounts as its own financial condition worsened. That would be a violation of securities rules.

Comments

[anthony enlow]

12:15 PM on 11/22/2011

Being a thief is like being an alcoholic, it knows no limits to race, religion, social status or political affiliation. A crook is a crook, let's just make sure someone pays this time.

[Chubbster]

12:06 PM on 11/22/2011

There is never just one cockroach.

[Chubbster]

12:05 PM on 11/22/2011

MF Global is the most outrageous and brazen abuse of customers by Wall Street insiders that has ever happened. That it has been receiving so little attention by the mass media shows the extreme moral hazard in which the average American unsuspectingly operates. That it receives so little attention here is a reflection of naked partisanship and lack of commitment to the rule of law. A lack that pretty much defines how it has been in D.C. the last 3 years.

MF Global is worse than Madoff. It was not a Ponzi scheme. The customers were not betrayed by a fraud. Rather, within an officially sanctioned system overseen by the government and the guarantees of a major global exchange and the regulators of the markets of the nation, their property was CONFISCATED, STOLEN, and SOLD, and then stolen again by the creditors and criminals who conceal it and attempt to claim it as their own.

And yet as bad as it is, the cover up, which is still under way, may be worse in its eventual effects, and bring down careers, some market organizations, and perhaps even members of the government. That's right. Cover-up. Mustn't let anything bad happen when it involves a major Democratic Insider, Bundler and Moneyman. Particularly in an election year.

Anyone seen Corzine lately? What was his bail bond when arrested?

[GoldwaterKid]

11:41 AM on 11/22/2011

So JP Morgan was the banker for MF Global, and would not extend them credit any longer to continue to do business.

Sounds like MF Global put their funds up for collateral to JP Morgan, and they absorbed them instead of holding them.

Did JP Morgan want MF Global to fail? Plenty going on here in the banking mob world.

[castlemike]

11:12 AM on 11/22/2011

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=197930

The "Trends Journal" says it has uncovered critical information that - in light of the MF Global bankruptcy - casts doubt on the fitness of CME Group to serve as a trustworthy derivatives and commodities exchange, and on the credibility of its Executive Chairman, Terence Duffy.

The literal existence of safe and sound markets is at stake here. If CME successfully dodges responsibility for failure to actually guarantee that performance bond funds are real and are where they are represented to be in each and every case then no end user, industry group or other person can reasonably believe that their trades are in fact "money good" anywhere on any United States exchange.

[Eugene Skidmore]

10:54 AM on 11/22/2011

this is nothing but "organized" crime. it seems to be the thrust of "free market, supply side" economics so favored by the republicans and the 1% that owns them.

[riverkwai1]

11:27 AM on 11/22/2011

Haha. I guess you wern't aware that the company was run by John Corzine, the former DEMOCRATIC governor of New Jersey?

[JosephineS]

10:49 AM on 11/22/2011

So Corzine is going to jail starting... when?

[Chubbster]

09:07 AM on 11/22/2011

Still buried. I would expect nothing less here than intellectual dishonesty. Don't you think it's a big story when Political Insider steals $1.2 billion dollars from his customers? Is it because he's a Democrat that you bury this? Dumb question. Obviously rank partisanship is more important than credibility.

[JosephineS]

10:53 AM on 11/22/2011

I never read a story reporting that "due to a rapid withdrawal by armed men with masks, the bank has a shortfall of $100,000 in its cash drawer -- Regulators are investigating. "

Or the bank opened 1000 customer safe deposit boxes which were surprisingly found to be empty. Regulators are investigating this shortfall.

or The valet parking lot reported that 5000 cars could not be located. Regulators are investigating this shortfall.

Larceny is the correct term, and Corzine should be fitted for prison stripes. ASAP.

[riverkwai1]

11:34 AM on 11/22/2011

If this company had been run by the second cousin of Sarah Palin's high school basketball coach it would be the top story with the headline "Palin Firm Swindles $1.2 Billion" with an unflattering picture of Palin directly below.

[bigblue22143]

08:51 AM on 11/22/2011

Jon Corzine did this. Did he give the money to Obama's campaign fund? They are good buddies, so much so Obama campaigned for Gov. Corzine 5x in New Jersey only to get blown away by Chris Christie. Just watch what they do, birds of a feather.

[Linda from Deerfield]

09:37 AM on 11/22/2011

You don't seem to understand that when you put money at risk in the markets, and you lose, the money is gone -- none available for campaign contributions or anything else.

[bigblue22143]

10:59 AM on 11/22/2011

The money wasn't lost due to market conditions, they don't know what they did with it. There is a difference, I understand plenty about the markets

[authorized-user]

08:23 AM on 11/22/2011

"The court-appointed trustee overseeing MF Global's bankruptcy says up to $1.2 billion is missing from customer accounts, double what the firm had reported to regulators last month."

WHO is going to bail out these 1%'s????

[Linda from Deerfield]

09:28 AM on 11/22/2011

The commodities markets originally existed for use by the producers of the commodities, to smooth the peaks and valleys of their income. Farmers in Australia are an example of the MF Global losers. It is not just the 1%.

[justleft]

07:58 AM on 11/22/2011

When will Corzie be ARRESTED?? Oh that's right, he's a DEM! :-(

[last man standing]

07:44 AM on 11/22/2011

They need to check Obama’s re-election campaign contributions for that 600 million.

Obama and Biden said the Corzine was the first guy they called when they realized they had a problem.

None for these so called leaders are the sharpest crayons in the box.

Obama and Biden have made so many gaffs no one pays an attention any more. It’s just expected.

They say Corzine was the go to guy for financial problems who loss 1.2 billion of investors money and they appoint Geithner Secretary of the treasury, a guy that gets stumped filling out his personal income using Turbo Tax, and we wonder what brought American to the edge of the abyss.

It’s not hard to figure out when you consider this circle of id iots.

[MayorsRevenge]

07:19 AM on 11/22/2011

Corzine is a made man and is therefore above the law.

Right Libs?

And before you Repubs get all self righteous, remember that everything from madoff to fannie to derivs exposing with national debt happened under "w".

[localwonk]

05:47 AM on 11/22/2011

I remember when Jon Corzine ran for governor and was won based on nothing more than being a liberal. He left the state in ruins particularly after increasing union benefits (IE taxpayer liabilities) during economic growth which not only slowed the growth rate down but made the downturn all the worse. Then he goes to MF Global and succeeds at getting them to be admitted as a primary dealer of the NY FED (the elite banks - mostly foreign - which dictate interest rates to the FED) and then MF Global goes bust with customer money mismanaged or outright stolen. Whether in political office or the private sector, liberals have fostered and nutured the very crisis we're in. Who's cleaning up the mess in Jersey? Chris Christie, a republican. Who's beginning to mop up the liberal movement that hit DC? the House GOP. Who's mopping up the liberal movements at the state level? The GOP. Do you liberals see a trend here?

[Eugene Skidmore]

10:57 AM on 11/22/2011

just because he ran as a "liberal" doesn`t mean he wasn`t controlled by "organized crime", which would fit him comfortably into the republican economic theory.

[golfr415]

11:22 AM on 11/22/2011

Wow, now that's an absolutely crazy and unsupportable accusation - that Corzine, the Republican party and organized crime - are in bed together. From what history has taught us, the actual relationship between organized crime and politicians does have Democrats in bed organized crime. Just one major example should suffice - Unions/Jimmy Hoffa/The Democrat Party/Organized Crime (of all of the New York crime families).

Try again when you actually understand what you're saying.

[Joe Goforth]

02:03 AM on 11/22/2011

Yes amazingly quiet on the Corrizine front. Could it be crony capitalism again? The only candidate that isn't a party to this wholesale thievery is Ron Paul. One last chance America, if you want to avoid a war in Iran and flush out the thieves on wall street and their buddies working at the Fed. Vote for Ron Paul. In spite of the campaign that the media and political wonks are running to discredit Ron Paul he is for real and can change this country for the better.

[saldog]

03:51 AM on 11/22/2011

Voted for him in 2008 (write in). May be doing the same in 2012. The fiscal problems are enormous and can only be solved by limiting government and defense on all fronts. I agree with you that time is ticking. Those who do not believe so were those burned by Nasdaq and housing bubbles. Sovereign debt bubble is next and will occur quickly -- just ask Western Europe. Clock is ticking.